LA Story Part 4: Allen Takes Offense To Trash-Talkin’ Kicker

(Editor’s Note: As former Cowboys’ Pro Bowl lineman Larry Allen approaches this weekend’s Pro Football Hall of Fame announcement, where it’s expected “LA” will get the prestigious honor in his first year of eligibility, the staff at DallasCowboys.com will reflect on his career all week. Today, we recall a game in which Allen’s strength and temper were on display.)

In 2005, Cowboys coach Bill Parcells decided to go with a younger deep snapper in Jon Condo, an undrafted rookie from Maryland. While he knew Condo had potential, he expected some growing pains early in the year.

In Week 3 at San Francisco, Condo was already struggling and then had another errant snap on an extra point attempt, which affected place-kicker Jose Cortez, who hooked the ball to the left. While Cortez started mouthing off towards Condo and the offensive line, that’s when, in an instant, his face mask received a huge jolt and his helmet shifted towards the side.

And why? Well, that’s because Larry Allen didn’t exactly care for Cortez’ tone, although the 5-11, 200-pound kicker certainly wasn’t intending for his displeasure to get into Allen’s path. It did and Allen gave him a quick helmet-tug to get his attention.

The Cowboys were able to get through that game and survive the 49ers for a dramatic 34-31 win.

But the end result of that moment was rather ironic though. The Cowboys ended up cutting Condo after that game. He landed with the Raiders, where he has been the regular snapper since 2007, even making a Pro Bowl in 2009.

Also, since the Cowboys decided to stay the entire week in California during the regular season in between road games at San Francisco and Oakland, they went for a local Bay Area snapper to get through the situation. They found L.P. Ladouceur, who just finished his college career at Cal-Berkeley. Ladouceur played that next game and every one since has he recently finished his eighth straight year with the Cowboys, becoming one of the more consistent snappers in the league.

Did Allen and his temper have anything to do with those domino-effects? Probably not, but it certainly was a memorable moment in a career of a player who did more talking with his arms than his mouth.